This is the blog of the Irish Climate Analysis and Research Units hosted by the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. It is primarily used to highlight newly published research and activities that may be of general interest.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Adapting to climate change: The challenges of transformation

In attempting to adapt to climate change, it is recognised that
a continuation of the status quo may no longer suffice and a shift to more
radical and transformative approaches may be necessary. In this regard, the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) note that transformation is
likely to involve a change in underlying norms, values and power structures and
an introduction of new institutional and regulatory practices. A recently
published paper in the Journal of Extreme
Events by researchers from Maynooth University and the Tyndall Centre for
Climate Change Research, Norwich highlights the challenges faced in implementing
transformative adaptation. The research, being funded by the Irish Environmental Protection
Agency, is concerned with understanding societal transformation to manage flood
risks across four European countries: Ireland, Austria, France and the
Netherlands.

Drawing on flood defence planning in Ireland; specifically,
Skibbereen, County Cork and Clontarf, County Dublin, the research identified
those barriers that persistently emerge in the context of transformative
adaptation. In Skibbereen, transformative adaptation was centred on plans in 2009 to develop a
multi-functional environmental park on public land on the town’s periphery to alleviate flooding.
The concept was designed to provide significant
recreational and environmental benefits and
was to be the first park of its kind in Ireland in
terms of its multi-functionality in integrating both engineering and non-engineering
flood measures and recreational facilities. It was deemed transformative on these grounds. In Clontarf, plans by the local
authority to construct an earthen mound through the centre of a heavily
utilised promenade to reduce the risk of coastal flooding were vehemently
opposed by the community in 2011. The project was deemed transformative in that
it was considered to fundamentally alter existing social values and norms ascribed
to the promenade and its functionality from a community perspective.

The findings showed that three
primary factors played a role in creating barriers to transformative change across both
case studies, namely threats to emotional place attachment and place identity and rigid
regulations in Clontarf, and reliance on technical knowledge in both Skibbereen
and Clontarf. Despite ongoing flood
risks in Clontarf, interviewees involved in the study highlighted that
protection of the form and functionality of the promenade was of primary
importance, whereby the community did not wish changes to interfere with their
attachment to the landscape nor impinge on their sense of connection to the
area. As one local resident noted, the proposed changes would serve to “sterilize the prom” if implemented,
something which the community was determined to prevent from happening for current and future
generations. In Clontarf, people also criticised how the local authority
notified them of the proposed plans, describing communication strategies used as
“stone-age”, and highlighting the
inadequacy of regulatory practices for notifying the public of proposed flood
defence plans. Across both cases, the researchers also found that Irish flood
risk management planning is heavily dependent on those with technical expertise,
and engineering solutions therefore continue to dominate nationally. Indeed, a
representative with responsibility for flood risk management from a local
authority typified this argument, noting that if flood defences are “not designed that you can
put something else in front of it and make it higher, it’s very difficult to retrofit it.”

The study argues that where social or
institutional barriers emerge, transformation may more likely succeed through a
series of incremental changes. The research has practical implications for
future adaptation planning as facilitating transformation through
incrementalism requires flexible
adaptation strategies that are responsive to changing social values over time. Darren
Clarke, a researcher involved in the study commented that “this is one of the first studies of its kind globally to explore
barriers to transformative adaptation using real-world examples. The results of
this research therefore offer important lessons for future adaptation planning across
all sectors as often more is learned when processes fail than succeed.”

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